In November 2003, after staying the night at Heathcote, I left late in the morning for Ballarat intending to drive along a few backroads which approximately followed the route of the old Redesdale rail alignment.

Although in its early days the rail service consisted of four weekly trips, my earliest memories are of the late twenties when two mixed trips per week were provided.

I can recall making my one and only trip accompanied by my mother, sister and younger brother, from Wangaratta to Docker (the return trip to Whitfield).

It was an afternoon in summer. The one passenger carriage was occupied by a few travellers who were seated on leather-padded bench seats along each side of the carriage. At each end of the carriage was the entrance platform with a guard rail over the coupling gear, and a small hood or verandah extending from the carriage roof. It was here a large canvas waterbag hung - the carriage’s only passenger amenity. Being a very hot afternoon and having eaten sweets before the journey began, we children regarded it as the train’s most indispensable piece of equipment.

We would sign on at 2am at Wangaratta to run the Tuesday Whitfield Goods. The engine would also come off the pet at 2am to do the shunt and the van and carriage would be pushed down to the buffer stop. Here they were charged with Pintich gas for their lighting, and the gas point serving both the broad and narrow gauge. Then the engine would run round and push them back on to the van. The driver would check the brakes and by this time it was 3am- the Whitfield Goods was due out.

THE vast majority of Gungahlin residents want the controversial Gungahlin Drive Extension to go ahead, a poll conducted for The Sunday Times has found.

A telephone survey on Thursday and Friday conducted by the Australian School of Government Studies showed 90 per cent of residents wanted the $71million extension.

An overwhelming majority - 80 per cent - were prepared to see the road, which will run between Tuggeranong Parkway at the Glenloch Interchange and Gungahlin Drive at the Barton Highway, go through the Canberra Nature Reserve, which includes the O'Connor and Bruce ridges.

In the early life of the Whitfield rail line there was the occasion of the runaway truck - an empty rail truck that somehow, quietly and unnoticed moved under its own momentum, away from the Whitfield siding and travelling towards the Wangaratta end, began an exciting little episode in the line’s history.

Spain sent in the army to guard its railways today after finding a bomb on a high-speed track that may contain the same explosives used in last month's Madrid train bombings.

Interior Minister Angel Acebes said police would check the 350 kph Madrid-Seville line on which the bomb was found kilometre by kilometre and would then use helicopters and army vehicles to guard key tracks.

The 12 kg of dynamite packed in a bag was found near the central city of Toledo and defused safely.

A TEENAGER was killed after falling into the path of a train during an alleged gang fight at Mooroolbark railway station late yesterday. Last night homicide squad detectives confirmed they were investigating whether the 17-year-old had been deliberately pushed to his death.

Light rail projects will be the central element of a new infrastructure plan to be unveiled by the end of this year. While no details of any projects have been outlined, one of the keynote speakers at the weekend's Economic Summit Revisited was Fred Hansen, general manager of Trimet, the light rail system operating in Portland, Oregon, US.

Sydney's commuters have barely recovered from the Millennium train fiasco – now a new "hi-tech" train is headed for the tracks. "New generation" train carriages worth $1.5 billion will replace a third of the ageing CityRail fleet over the next six years.

The State Government says it can no longer afford to keep the rail line between Casino and Murwillumbah open and will stop rail services between the towns. Coaches will replace the daily passenger train.

Friends, Railpage Australia will experience downtimes over the evening probably around 9pm until midnight. The downtime window will be approximately 2 -3 hours and is scheduled to enable cutover programming for the pending rp2 deployment, plus database schema changes.

Once the service is back online, users will experience changes to the rp network in terms of access and hosts. RP2 is close!

Railpage Australia is experiencing extended downtime continuing from last night's maintenence. Tech's have been working throughout the night and morning to restore service. We expect the rp2 and the new forums to come online around 4pm today.
This work has been necessary to combine the rather large forum databases and the new rp2 content management system.
-Operations.

If you are wondering where the old railpage site is and all our hosted customers off the .org.au domain, well they are there, but the machine had a major flame out yesterday and once i can access the data centre and reboot all will still be there.

Sorry about the downtime, but we decided to fix the forums first.

Finally, there are no changes to accessing your sites and requesting space. The new server is 20 times the capacity so we can host a lot more.

From a young aspiring railway volunteer, I discover that after being partially 'passed out' as a guard for the Zig Zag Railway, the fact that a railway is anything but perfect becomes the realisation for me as a young railway worker, destined to one day be on the footplate. The pressures of delays, disruptions and stressed collegues are at the least, an assessment of my performance and aptitude, trying to manage a train according to schedule, at the same time, carry aboard happy passengers.

After spending years as a 'typical' train buff, taking photos, travelling far out to see locos, going on tours and all that, there was something ahead which would really satisfy me in my love for trains. Something better than all the previous combined. Something that would set the road (Excuse the pun!) towards my lifelong dream.

The long childhood dream of mine to one day be on the footplate of a steam locomotive, and be the one opening the regulator was going to start somewhere. It was at Clarence station on the Zig Zag Railway filling out a membership form. Months later, the start of a dream would really begin where all volunteers do, their safeworking course. This was going to be my initial exposure to the operations of a railway, and it was the first step on the ladder I'd ever take.

The early 90's saw substancial changes with standardisation of the 'Main South' resulting in the relocation of Steamranger from Dry Creek to Mount Barker. The following is just a few recolections of the last few years of steam out of Dry Creek.

Grain farmers are taking an active interest in rail matters these days, much more than previously and for good reason. For too long it has been the policy of successive NSW governments to close down rural rail lines on the grounds that they do not pay.

Switching locomotives are the tugboats of the rail yards because they haul rail cars from one location or track to another. They are called "goats" in the industry and most North American switchers are 40 to 50 years old, noisy and expensive to operate and maintain. As well, they are constantly polluting the atmosphere.

The Bush Administration is planning on scrapping the nationally owned Amtrak railway service. The White House has asked the States for proposals and plans for the future “if Amtrak were dismantled and some or all of its routes were open to competition.“

The State Government yesterday reaffirmed its commitment to deepening Port Phillip Bay's shipping channel, but was unable to say how the $450 million project will be funded.
Its economic statement said legislation would be introduced this year to accelerate the project's planning approval and to declare it a priority for the state, subject to a satisfactory environmental effects study.

Rail lobby group Northern Rivers Trains for the Future says it welcomes the Federal Government's offer to fund a feasibility study into rail services in the region, but says the study must be independent.

Up to 3,000 people were killed or injured when two fuel-laden trains collided and exploded at a North Korean station just hours after leader Kim Jong-il had passed through, according to South Korean media.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates several commuter services in the New York City area, has exercised an option to buy 120 more M-7 electric rail cars from Bombardier Transportation for $280 million.

Beaudesert Rail has added a special wheelchair-friendly carriage to the seven nicely rennovated ones which its C17 steam train pulls regularily on its beaudesert-Logan village run. Wednesday's are usually reserved for group bookings, with the weekend trips for steam engine fans and other sightseers.

As many as 400 workers could lose their jobs when the State Government closes the rural rail reservations office at Central Station and at least 30 CountryLink travel centres in Sydney and across the state.

April 28, 2004
A drunk Mexican man who fell asleep on railroad tracks and was run over by a train slept through the entire episode and escaped unharmed, local officials said.
Jorge Lozano Lopez, a 32-year-old electrician, did not regain consciousness until well after paramedics arrived on the scene late one recent night.

A lawyer representing a group of eight Northern Territory cattle station owners says a test case could be mounted if the Territory Government does not readdress issues over the acquisition of land for the Alice to Darwin railway.

29apr04
About 500 CountryLink reservations staff have walked off the job for 24 hours to protest against the New South Wales Government's proposed cuts to regional rail services.
Also protesting today are people affected by the planned cutting of an XPT rail service between Casino and Murwillumbah on the NSW north coast.
The strike by CountryLink reservations staff was timed to coincide with the community protest, which will be held at Governor Macquarie Tower in Sydney later today.

As the tracks of the Belvidere & Delaware River Railway come alive, so will the dreams of a revived Phillipsburg. Saturday marks the long-awaited start of the Delaware River Railroad Excursions which officials are heralding as the town's first major tourist attraction and a sure-fire boost for the economy.

Television star Michael Palin has been invited to join railway enthusiasts on a nostalgic trip along the under-threat line to Londonderry. The Modern Railway Society of Ireland said it had invited Palin to travel with them on its "The Threatened Lines" tour this Sunday.